Discrimination still plagues leprosy victims in mainland China
Infection rate is less than one in 100,000 but the stigma associated with the disease is a problem
Over the centuries, few diseases have invoked such dread as leprosy. Even in English, the word leper means not just a victim of the disease but carries the wider connotation of being a pariah, outcast or one who is rejected by society. Today this tragic disease persists on the mainland - and will continue to do so, experts say, as long as discrimination against its victims continues.
Today is World Leprosy Day, which was established in the 1950s to highlight the plight of millions of people affected by a devastating and disfiguring illness. According to the World Health Organisation, more than 192,000 leprosy cases were registered worldwide in 2011. Most were in tropical Asia, South America and Africa, although America's National Institutes of Health says about 100 cases a year are reported in the US.
Leprosy, also called Hansen's disease, is caused by the Mycobacterium leprae bacterium. It first affects the skin, then nerves and muscles, and causes permanent disfigurement if not treated. It is not very contagious and has a long incubation period, making it difficult to know when and where it was contracted. It is more likely to strike children than adults, but can be effectively treated with multidrug therapy provided free by the World Health Organisation since the 1990s.
In China, leprosy victims were often permanently quarantined in the mountains. Some were even murdered - in some cases buried alive - such was the public's horror of the disease before effective drugs were developed in the 1940s. Today the national infection rate is less than one in 100,000, according to the Ministry of Health.
Most of the mainland's 6,000 active cases, those not declared cured, are found in poverty-stricken southwestern regions such as Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan, although some are still being treated in Guangdong.
Another 200,000 patients are considered cured but still require rehabilitation. Of these, 60 per cannot work due to their disability and 90 per cent are poor, according to the China Leprosy Association.
Dr Shen Jianping , a professor at the Nanjing-based National Centre for Leprosy Control administered by the China Centre of Disease Control and Prevention, said it would be hard for the mainland to meet a health ministry target set last year to reduce the number of active patients to 5,300 by 2015.